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Three women join AOC Board

AOC: Women will play a key role in the running of the Olympic Movement in Australia in the future following a massive shift in the gender balance on the Executive (Board) of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).

They will join Helen Brownlee (canoe kayak) and Kim Crow (rowing) and hold five of the twelve elected positions on the AOC Board.

The AOC President, John Coates, has long been an advocate of greater gender diversity on the AOC Board. “Women comprise 45% of our Summer Olympic Team and 50% of our Winter Olympic Team, and in recent times they are winning the bulk of our Olympic medals, it is only right that women therefore have a greater presence on our Board” Coates said.

“The new candidates are three outstanding women, on and off the field of play, and I am looking forward to working closely with them in the future. They have much to offer”.

Kitty Chiller competed at the Sydney 2000 Games and has remained very much involved in sport. She has been the President of Modern Pentathlon Australia since 2009 and was Deputy Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Danielle Woodward is a triple Olympian, 1992, 1996 and 2000, winning a silver medal in Barcelona in 92. Danielle is President and Chair of Australian Canoeing and a federal agent for the Australian Federal Police having worked for the United Nations in East Timor in 2002 – 2003.

Nicole Livingstone is also a three-time Olympian, 1988, 1992 and 1996, winning silver and two bronze medals. Out of the pool she established herself as a leading television host and broadcaster and recently became a member of the Swimming Australia Board.

Nominations for the election on May 5th closed today. AOC President John Coates will be elected unopposed.

Only seven nominations have been received for the seven Board positions meaning their election is a formality.

Helen Brownlee will move up to become the AOC’s first-ever female Vice-President joining Peter Montgomery. They will also be elected unopposed.

Kim Crow and James Tomkins are elected by the athletes, the other ten voting members are elected by the member sports of the AOC. The elected AOC Board includes seven Olympians of whom five are Olympic medallists.

In addition, IOC member, Kevan Gosper, remains a voting ex-officio member until his retirement from the IOC at the end of the year. He was a silver medallist at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

AOC Secretary- General, Craig Phillips, continues as an appointed non-voting member of the Board.